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Message no. 1
From: Brian Angliss <ANGLISS@****.PSU.EDU>
Subject: What Collussus declined to mention...
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1993 22:06:31 -0400
>>>>>[All in all, Collussus' report was relatively accurate, if woefully
missing all the details of this place. And his base synopsis was accurate too,
it was like Custer's Last Stand(gotta love history...) all over again. But he
forgot to mention his part in it. I can't say I'm surprised, as that's the
kind of person he is. He could save the planet from disaster and get embarrasedthat
people loved him for it. Way too modest for a runner, or an ex-Ranger.

Well, when we ran into those first troops heading out towards where we just
were, and the Students saved us, they attacked Collussus too. But he didn't
attack back, just stood there and took the dents and spells(scary that my only
defense against this guy only works a little bit...*shudder*) until I stopped
them by standing infront of Collussus. Seems that they thought he was an Army
Cyborg, as there was one wandering around the center of campus, armed with two
miniguns for arms and a missile launcher on it's shoulder. Not very nice, and
they were having major difficulty dealing with it. I heard the casualty
figures after from that guy alone were over 60, with 24 dead. Well, he took
off, and Max and I followed as best we could. When we got there, Collussus was
facing off with this thing that could only be called bipedal on a good day.

Well, it was heavily armed and Collussus was "naked," unarmed except for his
built in weapons. And he has a few that I did not expect to see, like a heavy
pistol in his leg, and a SMG built into his arm. No real surprise really, but
still I didn't expect to see them. The thing attacked him, with the army
circling around to get at us on the other side and battle was joined in the
HUB. Those two cyborgs fought for longer than even the regular Army did, and
there was going to be one winner, one loser. I guess that the way a cyborg's
system is set up(correct me if I'm wrong, Wiz) that if he goes "unconscious,"
he's on reserve power, and that if he takes massive trauma, the biosystem fails
catistrohpically(ick, spelling on turtles...) and the person inside dies.
These two were going at it, for over 20 minutes, ranging all over the campus.
We and the students took the regular army at the HUB, the vehicles were taken
later by students after their occupants had been knocked unconscious or
confused by elementals and spirits so they didn't know thier own names, but
Collussus and the thing just kept going.

And go they did. They went through the HUB, out onto the lawn where Collussus
got a burst of minigun fire in the back that literally threw him through the
Penn State Bookstore windows. Collussus took off toward Pollock Halls, racing
through Centre and passing South at a rate that only a cyborg could keep up
with. He nailed the thing with a couple of SMG rounds to the head when he
turned and fought to let some regular students clear out fast. It didn't even
faze the thing, just seemed to make it mad and he hosed down the area around
Collussus with minigun fire and added one of six missiles just for good
measure. I could almost see the thing gloating over Collussus, and I feared he
was dead...until he just up and kicked out it's leg, knocking it to the ground
and making a minigun arm unusable.

Collussus took off again, racing towards Eisenhower Parking Garage and
disappearing into it and the tunnels beneath PSU. Well, it followed and we
were afraid that it would get into the tunnels, where it could easily hide and
live forever, picking off the security that found it. Well, it never did find
the right code to open the 10cm thick blast doors, and even an HE missile did
nothing but scar the door. So it took off to wreak more havoc, and Collussus
re-appeared, this time at the Forum. He took off and encountered it just as it was about
to blow a large hole in the Creamery.

He should have let it blow a hole in the Creamery, as the insuing battle did
more damage to it than a missile would have. It is not even there any more,
and the building it is attached to is half gone too. Not pleasant, but when
they were done, it had only 2 of 6 missiles left and it's other minigun was out
of ammo. Yep, it burned over 2000 rounds of MMG ammo and 2 missiles up around
there. Not a lot of fun, and the students didn't think so either. They almost
killed Collussus when it was all over, as if he wasn't half dead already.

Finally, Collussus got hit by a missile. just a glancing blow, but enough to
make an arm totally unusable, the one with the SMG, and enough to damage the
other so that he couldn't operate the smartgun link in it. Ouch. And it came
down to hand-to-hand.

Well, if you've ever seen that old flat-screen flick about two robots hunting
a kid who's supposed to be the leader of a resistance in the future(T2 I think
it was...but I'm not sure) then you know what this looked like. Two metal men
throwing each other literally through brick walls and into trees so hard that
they knocked down a few and took branches off others. In the end, though, they
ended up in front of Pattee Librairy. I guess they have some heavy weapons in
the tower because all of a sudden the thing was down, oozing hydraulics and
sucking air into a hermetically sealed chest cavity. Collussus walks up,
limping from damaged knee and hip actuators and joints, and with his right hand
just hanging from a useless arm, and looks down all sad and actually says that
he is sorry that it had to turn out this way. It seemed to accept his apology
and then motioned him away quickly. As Collussus leaped back using his jacks,
it exploded, throwing shrapnel all over the place and digging a hole over 3
feet(ick)-make that 1 meter deep and several wide.

It's really too bad. Watching those two battle was like watching the gods, if
there are any, fight among themselves-awe inspiring and terrible. It makes me
really glad that there are not many of them, and that I know one as a friend.
Thanks Collussus.]<<<<<
-- Foxey Roxey(22:02:07/10-13-54)

>>>>>[I really didn't do all that much, Roxey. Just couldn't let all those
kids get hurt by something they just don't understand. It's too bad she had
to die, though...she was the first Dragoon ever made, and I knew her well...]<<<
-- Collussus(22:04:00/10-13-54)

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